Holiday Lights

One of my favorite things about the holidays is walking or driving around the neighborhoods and looking at everyone's holiday decor... there's something so magical about twinkling lights, beautiful wreaths and the charm of kid's artwork displayed in windows. On our house, we have a peaked gable, and it simply NEEDED something to fill that space. I found this wreath on Amazon, and it was absolutely perfect: easy to assemble, numerous light settings and so pretty at night! It's all sparkly-- white with a red bow and changed to all the colors! (video below) Click here for the link to my wreath:

And click here for another option if you want a green one: I used these vinyl siding hooks to hang it up (2 of them worked perfectly and they each can hold up to 10pounds each): And finally, this was the timer/extension cord I used to make sure they turned on and off at the times I wanted it to: I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday season and a great start to the New Year! Happy 2024!

And here are all the links:
Light Up Wreath
Green Wreath
Siding Hooks
Extension cord Timer

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! (Or Happy Galentine's Day!) In this post I wanted to share my look (and new items!)  for V-Day, and some of my thoughts about it... (by some thoughts, I mean I'm getting real here and being honest!)

  Before I go off on my tangent about Valentine's Day, I'll first share my outfit and the pieces I am wearing in the outfit. Below is a layout of my outfit.

Holiday Look

As any good friend of mine would know, I am a HUGE procrastinator. I wait until the (literally) last second to finish things (literally because I one time turned in an essay online 1 minute before the deadline!!). So, in true Megi D. fashion, this holiday post is coming out…after the holidays.

ALL PHOTOS TAKEN BY THE TALENTED LUCY BELL (@lbellx on Instagram).

I had originally planned to post this before the holidays to give you a little outfit inspiration. I love the holidays because it gives you a chance to dress up and wear some fun items. I also wanted to share the great deal I got on one of the pieces in this post. I love my photographer Lucy, she captures the magic in everyday life. This photo is one of my favorites from the shoot, she got the perfect little shot with the vibrant colors and details all showing. I didn't even have to edit any of the pictures!

This statement necklace was (not sure if it still is) on sale at Nordstrom for $9.97! I love the bright pink stone in the center and the brown, navy, and white accent jewels.

Blanketed in... A Scarf

While some bloggers are posting their gorgeous pictures in the snow... there is no snow (or even a chance of snow!) in my little town in California. So instead of the ground being blanketed in snow, I am blanketed in a scarf, and the ground in my pictures are covered in greenery and cement.

I recently got this blanket scarf from one of my besties (who blogs at Outside of the Birdcage) for my birthday.  I love how it is reversible (or as I wear it-- with both sides showing) and soooo comfy. She got it at one of our Downtown boutiques Prim. In this post I will be showing you 3 different ways to wear a blanket scarf. I wore it to school, and out later tonight in the way pictured below, which many people thought was a sweater!

Winner winner!!

I am so excited to share that I won a $100 gift card to Francesca's from their Instagram contest. I uploaded screenshots of my wishlist to there. The next day I was so excited to see that I won one of the gift cards!

 I usually don't win contests but I decided to enter this one, and I am so happy I did! I absolutely love all of Francesca's items. I always find something I love there. Can't wait to share what I get with my gift card!

Burgundy and Bardot

 

Brigitte Bardot is one of my hair Goddesses that I look up to. In this outfit post is also a little hair how-to on my take of her iconic voluminous hairstyle. For today's outfit I went with a burgundy H&M sweater, black Target painted jeans, Report boots from Marshall's, and a black bag. For accessories I added my Kate Spade gold bangle, Alex&Ani bangle, and gold Jaeger-LeCoultre watch.

Winter Brights

I love winter time: 1. because I'm on vacation, and 2. because I love bundling up. It has been quite chilly for California weather recently, and I've been pulling out my winter coats. This cream coat is my sister's from Nordstrom. I am in love with the bright orange liner (I totally blend in with the foliage!).

Birthday Blue

At the core of my blog is the sole purpose: one of those purposes is celebrating. With every post I write, I want to celebrate creativity, style, goals achieved, and fun! Birthdays are one of the biggest celebrations in our lives because as humans, we see the day we were born as a big deal of course!

Fall Fashion Formula

With the temperatures dropping, the amount of layers and length I add to my outfits increase as rapidly as the leaves are falling! I wanted to share my most used, and very simple to understand (and implement!) formula for fall:
             Booties + Skinny jeans + Sweater/top +Jacket  + Scarf = My Fall Uniform
I am super behind on outfit posts (but have almost every day's outfit pictures stored on my tablet) but I wanted to share 2 "applications" of my Fall Formula from just a couple of days ago. Also, if you check around my blog, I have added a couple outfit posts from back in August! Another post I am working on at the moment is a post sharing all the clutches my Grandma gave me (she was cleaning up her room). The two in this post are from her. I love the velvet burgundy one with the gold and tortoise shell accents (it also has a gold chain to use as a shoulder strap). The black envelope style clutch is great to add with any outfit.

Another post I am working on is on the watches my Grandma gave me that belonged to my Grandpa. Pictured (this is one of my favorite shots I took with my tripod, most of the other ones are taken by my Dad) is one of the gold watches.

For both looks I wore my new booties from H&M (Divided) and the same Vigoss Studio skinny jeans from Nordstrom (in one I rolled the bottoms, the other I tucked them into my jeans).

New York Trip Diary

I wanted to share each day about my experiences and outfits (I will put links to the store's website if I have time) on my first trip to New York. This is an ongoing  post so I’ll post when I have time as I go. I had wanted to blog every day, but as I am used to California time, am trying to fit as many things into one day as possible, AND want to get at least a couple hours of sleep, I do not believe it is possible. The pictures I am sharing are mostly all taken by me, the ones with me in them are of course taken by other people (mostly my sister Steph).
Update: I decided to just write it all at once as a recap and post it after I was done (and yes, that means almost 3 months after my actual trip!).

View from first flight- bad quality iPhone pic, but GORGEOUS sunset.

I absolutely love plane pictures, seeing everything from above is so breathtaking, especially at night! All the lights look like glittering diamonds!

Fashion ID App

I was recently contacted about reviewing the app Fashion ID. Over the past couple of weeks I have been playing around with it. I only write the truth on here, and I can honestly say that I love this app! It is really fun to post your outfits and interact with all the other users. There are 5 different sections on the app that you pull down from the top arrow list.

Homecoming Sneak Peek... And Homecoming pictures!

 

It's Homecoming weekend at my school! I wanted to give a sneak peek of my homecoming look; basically all of my stuff, just not me wearing them!

I got both my dress and shoes at Saks Fifth Avenue Off Fifth (the outlet store-- a.k.a. a LOT less expensive than Saks Fifth!). I've always worn dark colors to dances (black, navy blue) and this time I decided to go with a brighter color- cream.

Exciting News!!

Wanted to share some exciting news, I was contacted today on Instagram by Nordstrom about being featured on their website. I am so excited about this, when I got the notification it was so surreal! The picture is of my nails wearing Nordstrom B.P.'s "Sugared Mint". They instructed to # either yes or no, and I said #(heck)yes!! I have no idea when or where my photo will be, but if you see it PLEASE take a screenshot and send it to me!! (diysbymegid@gmail.com)



Thanks for reading!



Stripes and Statements

I love wearing white jeans, there is no better statement than the stark contrast between white, and basically any color. I chose a pair of Old Navy white pants that I rolled into capris with a Gap cross key-hole back tank (remember it from my Shopping (with Super Savings) post?).

I wore my favorite pair of sandals (also in my Shopping post, from Gap) with all gold accessories (Kate Spade bangle, one of my mom's old gold chain and diamond bracelets, an Alex & Ani bbangle, and my MET ring).

My other statement piece was this pink and gold stone necklace from my New York trip necklace haul. I thought that it was a good tie-together piece with the white diamonds going with my white accented shirt, and white pants.

 Little story-- as I was taking these pictures with my tree, so much bark was coming off and getting all over me (it was everywhere when I went inside!!). For one of the pictures, I was leaning on the tree, and because I take it with a self  timer I had to race over to the tree so I could pose before it went off. It was really hot out, and my feet were getting sweaty... long story short, as I was posing, my feet were on the roots of the tree, and I ended up slipping down the tree because my feet slipped in my shoes on top of the roots!!

My style tip/advice of the day is whenever you wear a pattern, make sure to offset it with neutral tones that complement/contrast it, and don't overpower your pattern!

First Day of School

There is one part of going back to school that I love, and that is putting together those first days of school's outfits! For my first day of school, I wore my new H&M DIVIDED geometric romper with my (also new and from H&M) bright pink blazer. Here is my customary shot showing my outfit, accessories, and nails of the day! Accessories: Alex & Ani bangle, Juicy Couture  chain bracelet, random ring, bangle from Macys, and sandals from Nordstorm Rack.





The nail color I am wearing is "Sugared Mint" by Nordstrom B.P. I put a tiny star jewel on my ring finger from a  Forever 21 nail jewel kit my friend got me for my birthday last year.

Yes... I am really that tan from the summer (that's what swim will do to ya!).

I absolutely love the back of this romper. Yes to anyone wondering, I am wearing a bra.... with the Victoria's Secret low-back bra attachment (it makes any low back top wearable so you don't have that awful bra adjustment showing!). I got mine with a multi-wear bra I got there, but  here is one linked from Target that I found for only $5.99!

With every outfit post, I want to share thoughts about how I choose what to wear and put the pieces together. With this combo, because the pattern on the romper was pretty busy, I chose to wear my solid pink blazer over it. On my blazer are silver zippers, so I pulled all silver accessories for this look, including the black patent leather sandals I wore (which had silver jewel embellishments). If I had not worn it with the blazer, I would have worn one of my solid bright colored statement necklaces. With patterns, I like to offset it with a bold color of statement piece to balance the outfit. Hopefully you will find my tips helpful!

 Although I dread going back to the monotony and stress of school, it really is fun to put together outfits for the days to come. To all those who are also going back to school, or work, or just saying a mournful goodbye to summer (as we all are!), I say to you, good luck in the year to come!